The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has selected Nhat Trinh from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a 2011 award recipient of the ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship.

This fellowship is aimed at highly competitive students who wish to pursue graduate careers (Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.) in microbiology. Fellows have the opportunity to conduct full time summer research at their institution with an ASM mentor and present their research results at the 112th ASM General Meeting in San Francisco, CA if their abstract is accepted.

Each fellow receives up to a $4,000 stipend, a two-year ASM student membership, and funding for travel expenses to the ASM Presentation Institute and 112th ASM General Meeting.

This year, sixty-eight applications were received and thirty-nine were awarded. Of the thirty-nine awardees, seventeen students were from doctoral/research universities—extensive institutions, two students was from doctoral/research universities—intensive institutions, fourteen students were from a master’s college and university institutions, four students were from baccalaureate colleges, one student from balanced arts & sciences/professions, some graduate coexistence, and one student from a comprehensive doctoral institution.

Dr. Douglas Mitchell from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is Nhat Trinh’s mentor. The title of the research project is: A new perspective on the virulence of Borrelia burgdorferi: the causative agent of Lyme disease.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), headquartered in Washington, DC, is the oldest and largest single biological membership organization, with over 40,000 members worldwide. Please visit http://www.asm.org/students for more information on this fellowship.